


love me as i love you

by oldrival



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Red & Green & Blue & Yellow | Pokemon Red Green Blue Yellow Versions
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Pokespe - Freeform, mt silver, shame on red for always leaving smh, specialshipping is so soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24419101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldrival/pseuds/oldrival
Summary: red finally decides not to run away from his feelings for once
Relationships: Red/Yellow (Pokemon), SpecialShipping, callabaroshipping, pikachuchushipping
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	love me as i love you

**Author's Note:**

> for diana <3
> 
> this takes place after gsc arc. if u haven't read it is okay bc i explain plot a lot. i hope u enjoy <333

Pika makes a disgruntled sound as Red hops abruptly off his bike, the Pikachu’s scarlet cheeks sparking as he scrabbles for a better perch on Red’s shoulder. Red had screeched to a stop in front of one of the more weather-beaten, time-worn cottages in Viridian City, home to Yellow and her Uncle Wilton. Red takes a deep breath, willing his hand to stop shaking so he can rap on the door loud enough to announce his arrival. 

Red’s happy-go-lucky, carefree attitude has been weighed down for the past week or so - no, more like the past month - by an immense cloud of guilt hovering over him. The unrelenting cloud of guilt had first formed above him the first time he’d scaled Mt. Silver, the colossal peak separating Kanto from Johto, after the adrenaline from the fiasco with Kanto’s (ex) Elite Four and Lance had dwindled away. Sweaty and achy, recovering from a training session, Red had gotten a call from Professor Oak one afternoon as he slumped over his kitchen table. Red had picked up the phone, sore wrist protesting, and listened while Green’s grandfather babbled on about Johto and his juniors and legendary birds - he’d had enough of legendary birds for a while after Lance had almost destroyed Kanto with one - and Oak had finally made his point: would he be interested in accompanying Yellow to Johto to search for one of the legendary birds? Red honestly didn’t understand everyone’s sudden need for him to take responsibility for things after what had happened to him; he’d let Lorelei imprison him in a block of ice before he could inflict a remotely substantial amount of damage to Bruno’s pokémon. He’d been MIA for a month before he finally showed up at Cerise Island to help out Bill, Blue, Green, and Yellow when half the battle had already been fought. First it was an offer to become Viridian’s gym leader, and now Oak was proposing a quest to hunt down Lance’s escaped legendary bird? He just couldn’t handle anything like that after what he’d been through. His body ached after only twenty minutes of training and he could barely pick up a fork to feed himself. Not to mention his mental state - being frozen in a hunk of ice for weeks and immediately rushing to take down an enemy after he’d gotten out hadn’t allowed him nearly enough time to process everything that had happened to him in the past month. So he’d turned Professor Oak down, ignoring the fuzzy feeling in his chest at the thought of spending time alone with the cute blonde who’d bested Lance. He’d taken Green’s advice and gone to soak in Mt. Silver’s hot springs, head filled with the pretty blonde girl’s soft smile, her rosy cheeks after he’d joked with her about living together, and the way her sleeping face in his arms seemed to be the most peaceful thing he’d ever seen. He’d opened his eyes one afternoon to Sabrina glowering at him across the steamy water, and next thing he knew he was off to the League to rescue his friends and Kanto and Johto’s gym leaders from an out-of-control train. Then he and Green had rushed off to Ilex Forest and along with Yellow, Blue, and their juniors, fought some more legendary birds and an old man in a mask and a crazy ice-suit (at this point Red was a little irked about all the ice) but all of a sudden Yellow had given up her hat and its feathers to the explosive boy with the Typhlosion and Red wished they weren’t fighting Blue and Silver’s senile kidnapper because wow, he’d like to spend some time admiring Yellow who he never thought could look any more angelic, but here she was, ponytail and all, blinking up at him with cheeks redder than their Pikachus’. But like the idiot he was, he’d chosen Mt. Silver over her yet again after they’d lost Pryce to time. Gold, Typhlosion’s very loud and very raunchy trainer, had begged to train with him at the peak of that stupid mountain and he just couldn’t turn the eager boy down (he’s also not sure if Gold would have taken no for an answer). So off he went with Gold in tow, casting a penitent backward glance at the rest of the dexholders as they conversed, giddy with relief and exhilaration, all except for Yellow. A full head shorter than the rest of them, she stared back at Red, amber eyes shining with something like desire, a yearning to just yell “stop” or “wait” so he’d turn back for her. Just before he’d whipped his head back around, he’d seen the light in her eyes fade and her shoulders slump as she turned away in devastated acceptance of his departure. While his second stay at Mt. Silver wasn’t necessarily less enjoyable than his first (he’d gotten used to Gold’s dirty jokes and boisterous laughter filling his ears all day), the cloud brimming with guilt had grown and grown, hovering over his head no matter what he did to get his mind off the blonde. Her face was always there, while he zoned out during Gold’s training, while they ate, behind his closed eyes during the sleepless nights on Mt. Silver’s cold, hard soil. All he could think about was how he’d let her go - not just once, but twice now. He’d been the cause for those empty, broken hazel eyes following him across Johto and up Mt. Silver. 

And now here he was, in front of her house in Viridian City, with no idea what in the world he’d say to her. He had no idea how she felt - had she been thinking about him as much as he’d been thinking about her? Maybe she’d tried to forget about him. Maybe she was angry, and wanted nothing to do with him. No matter what, she deserved some kind of an apology, or at least a thank you for her help at Ilex Forest - he’d been considerate enough to at least praise her after she defeated Lance before he’d run off to Mt. Silver for the first time. 

Red balls his hand into a fist, blunt nails digging into his palm, and knocks on the creaky wooden door of the cottage. He stuffs his hands into his jeans pockets so she won’t see them trembling when she opens the door. The metal knob wiggles and Red almost bolts. He steels himself. He won’t let himself run away this time. 

The door swings open, and Wilton, clad in his sailors’ uniform, greets him, “Hey, Red! Geez, how long has it been? It’s good to see you, son. How have you been?”

Red opens his mouth, blinking blankly back at Wilton - he had definitely not thought about a Wilton version of this scenario at all. 

“I - I’m alright, thanks,” Red stutters, “Uh, I actually really need to talk to Yellow. Is she here?” 

Wilton’s toothy grin fades and Red’s heart plummets. Red desperately just wants to sprint as far away as he can from Wilton and Viridian City and you know what, might as well just get the hell out of Kanto while he’s at it. He’d actually read an article about Sinnoh the other day, and maybe starting over wouldn’t be so -

“She isn’t at home right now. She’s … she’s actually spent a lot of time away from home lately. I think she would have told me if she was going far away, but I really can’t tell you where she might be at the moment - I have no idea,” Wilton says, scratching the nape of his neck. Red’s heart thumps rapidly in his chest and his nails dig further into his quivering palms. Has she been missing lately because of him? No, he can’t think that way - he probably hasn’t even crossed her mind since Ilex Forest. 

“Oh, okay. Thanks. I’ll be off then; I really need to talk to her,” Red replies, turning back to his bike. Wilton leans out from the doorway, “You sure you don’t want to stop in for a bit? It’s getting late…”

Red shakes his head, waving as he pushes off towards the Viridian Gym. Pika kneads at his shoulder as he rockets through the sleepy city. 

“I know, buddy,” Red mumbles. He hadn’t even thought about Pika’s relationship with Chuchu. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he’d caused a rift in the Pikachus’ relationship. The setting sun blinds him, dipping below the evergreen trees on the horizon. Viridian is perpetually peaceful; he’d be able to relax easily if he wasn’t sick to his stomach worrying about her. 

Red sighs as he detects the all too familiar sounds of pokémon scuttling around and trainers calling out commands inside the gym. He doesn’t want to interrupt, but he knows he’ll stay up all night thinking about Yellow if he doesn’t ask Green for help. He pulls open one of the gym’s doors with a shaky hand, careful not to distract Green’s challenger as he enters. Green catches his eye for a brief moment, raising his eyebrows in question before he shifts his attention back to his Scizor. Red shuffles along the side of the gym towards Green. Normally he’d love to stay and watch the battle or even challenge Green to a battle of their own, but he can’t peel his eyes away from the floor in front of him - he feels pathetic. The challenger finally notices him, pausing in the middle of calling out a move to look expectantly from Red to Green. 

“What is it, Red?” Green asks gruffly, obviously irritated at Red’s interruption, and addresses his challenger, “I’m sorry, hold on a minute.”

Red swallows, willing his voice not to wobble with anxiety as he asks, “Where’s Yellow?”

Sighing, Green glares at Red with a look that says he knows exactly what Red’s up to, “I don’t know. My best guess would be Viridian Forest. Good luck finding her in there, though … Y’know, she wouldn’t stop asking about you after you went to Mt. Silver. I still can’t believe you just left like that.”

Red is taken aback - he searches Green’s face for some kind of deeper explanation, but the brunette is emotionless as always. She’d asked about him? What in the world was there to ask? Maybe that meant she was still thinking about him, after all. Before Red can say anything else, Green mutters, “I told you what you need to know. Now get out of here.”

Red scoffs a little at his dry sense of humor and turns to leave. He notices Pika has perked up on his shoulder, presumably at the thought of his mate being so close by. Walking along the side of the gym once more, Red notices the unmistakable dull drum of rain hitting the building outside. His cloud of guilt has arrived once again, in an actual tangible storm. That’s right, he realizes, he can’t be too optimistic yet. He still doesn’t know how Yellow feels about him leaving - or about him at all, really. His time at Mt. Silver, thoughts consumed by the girl from Viridian Forest with the soft hands, soft smile, soft voice, had eventually allowed him to accept that his heart fluttering in his chest whenever she was around, whenever she laughed at his jokes, whenever she blushed around him, cheeks rosy, wasn’t exactly normal in a platonic friendship. He’d been able to admit to himself that he’d developed feelings for Yellow, but just because things seemed so different, so soft and tender and dreamy between them, didn’t mean she reciprocated those feelings … but what did he know about any of that stuff, anyway? He really should have asked Blue about how to handle something like this, but the shade of Viridian Forest’s evergreen trees envelops him instead, shielding him from the escalating drizzle; it’s too late now. 

“Let me know if you see her, Pika,” Red tells the Pikachu on his shoulder. He’s flying past stray Caterpie and foliage so fast everything looks like a watercolor painting, so it’ll be a miracle if he can spot Yellow in the rainy blur. Red slows down after he’s deeper within the forest so he can take the time to look around. The sun has almost disappeared behind the horizon, and the canopy above him makes the forest even darker. He hopes Yellow hasn’t started home for the night, but surely she can’t still be in the forest if it’s raining so much. Red rounds a heavy patch of trees and foliage and has to hastily step on the breaks because there she is. There she is, and he’d almost bowled her over with his bike. Things are already off to a great start. 

“Yellow!” he exclaims, launching himself off the bike and tossing it to the side like he’s some kind of superhuman. Pika flies to the damp forest floor from his shoulder, bouncing around Chuchu at Yellow’s feet. Yellow stares at Red with wide eyes, blinking as she tries to process all the action suddenly greeting her. Her hair is pulled back in her signature long ponytail, her bangs plastered to her forehead from the rain. She’s clutching her sketchbook to her chest. The pages are dotted with raindrops and she has a pencil tucked behind her ear. Raindrops weigh down her blonde eyelashes and make her lips glisten, and Red almost wants to run away again because he doesn’t think he can handle how casually gorgeous she looks. Every time he sees her she’s more beautiful. 

“Yellow,” Red says again, calmer this time. His hands are trembling in midair between them, like he wants to give her a hug, or hold her hands in his, or pull her close and kiss her - no, oh no, definitely not. What gave him that idea? Absolutely not. He shoves his hands in his jeans pockets for the second time that evening. 

“H-Hi, Red,” Yellow replies, her voice as soft and shy as ever. Red wonders if he’s dreaming. She looks ethereal, and he probably looks and smells like a wet dog. What a reunion. Thunder rumbles low in the background, filling the silence hanging between them as they take each other in. 

“Did you … How long have you been back?” Yellow asks after the thunder subsides, blinking up at him, cheeks flushed. Red thinks back to Ilex Forest and his heart hammers harder than ever in his chest. 

“I, uh, I - I just got back. I came straight here. Well, I - not really, I stopped at your house, and then the gym, to ask Green where you were,” Red cringes internally because wow he’s sure he sounds like a stalker or something, “and, well, now I’m here.” 

Yellow chews on her bottom lip, and her sketchbook slips a little in her grip, “O-Oh. Um, why … why would you come to see me?” 

Red thinks his heart has finally just split in two. The two halves of the thrumming mass in his chest have been hanging on for dear life since he went to Mt. Silver the second time, but this is it. Yellow’s voice is small, shaky, uncertain. She must have thought Ilex Forest was the last time she’d ever see Red. Whatever could have been between them, she must have thought Red was abandoning. When he’d saved her from the Dratini and helped her catch her first pokémon in this very forest, all the training and strife she’d gone through to find him after he’d disappeared because of the Elite Four, Kitty’s telling string shot tying them together and Red’s subsequent rash joking about their relationship, she must’ve thought Red was throwing it all away after he’d left for Mt. Silver the second time. 

“Yellow, why wouldn’t I come to see you? I - I missed you,” Red murmurs, his gaze falling towards their Pikachu cuddled up between them. 

“You … you missed me?” Yellow squeaks, sketchbook slipping entirely out of her fingers and tumbling towards the damp grass below. Red lurches forward instinctively for it, but Yellow meets him halfway, wrapping her arms clumsily under his own and squeezing him tight. Immediately Red reciprocates, bending to hug the shorter blonde girl comfortably. His chest feels warm. Perhaps his heart is piecing itself back together. 

The two of them stand like that for a while, just holding each other. The lush evergreen trees shield them from the bulk of the downpour, and they breathe each other in, focusing only on each other in the midst of the storm, paying the raindrops that slip through the dark emerald leaves no mind. Their natural abilities compliment each other perfectly as Kanto’s healer and fighter. Red feels like he’s finally put the last missing piece to his own puzzle in place. He doesn’t want to ever let her go again. 

“Red,” Yellow mumbles into his chest, “Please … please don’t ever leave again.” 

He forgets Yellow has that very convenient ability to read minds.

“I won’t. I promise,” Red says, chin resting on the top of her soaked blonde hair. Yellow leans back, slowly, like molasses, like she’s trying to savor the moment as much as she can. She stares up at him, and her eyes blaze with the same desire he’d seen in them before he’d left her behind. Red smiles for the first time since he’d left Mt. Silver. 

“Red,” Yellow starts again, hesitant. Her cheeks are flushed rosy pink. Red thinks he knows what she wants to say. But he feels like he should be the one to bridge that gap, so she doesn’t have to take the plunge after he’d bolted the moment they’d finally had an opportunity to be like this, with just each other. He just doesn’t know how to put the butterflies in his stomach into words that will tell her how he feels. So he takes a deep breath, takes her chin in his hand, and leans in. 

Their lips are young, naive, unsure, but so are they. The countless times Red has imagined this very moment between them are suddenly very real and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Reaching for the small of Yellow’s back, he pulls her close against him. She leans into him, her hands fluttering up to rest on his chest, his shoulder. He’s got to be dreaming. All the times Yellow had blushed after he’d told a stupid joke, their fingers brushing together when they’d walk a little too close to one another, the drawings in her sketchbook - he should have realized. He should have said something, done something. It makes him feel even guiltier knowing he’d let her go, twice. Regardless, she’s here, now, in his arms, soft hands tugging at his top, delicate lips that had smiled at him so many times pressed tenderly against his own. He can’t believe it. And it’s all the more reason to never let her go again.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u so much for reading!!! <3 i hope u enjoyed pksp's softest ship hehe :.)


End file.
